Ba'athist Iraq

Ba'athist Iraq (1968-2003) was a socialist republic ruled by Saddam Hussein from its beginning to its end. A dictatorship that was ruthless against Shi'ites and Kurds, it fought Iran in 1979-1988 and a United States-led coalition in 1990 and 2003.

History
Ba'athist Iraq was created when the Ba'ath Party of Iraq overthrew the Kingdom of Iraq in 1968 and created a dictatorship ruled by Saddam Hussein. Ba'athist Iraq was an ally of the Soviet Union, and from 1980, they allied with the United States. That year, Iraq declared war on Iran in order to prevent Iran from backing Shia revolution in Iraq itself and the Iran-Iraq War began. Iraq and Iran's invasions of each others' countries were pushed back and the result was stalemate. The end of the war in 1988 left both economies damaged, and in 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait to solve their problems. The result was a defeat for Iraq at the hands of Kuwait and soldiers from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Saudi Arabia, and other countries that formed a coalition. The short Gulf War, with most of the action taking place in one week in February 1991, defeated Iraq and left the country with a bad reputation.

In the years following the Gulf War, Kurdish and Shi'ite rebellions were crushed by the Iraqi Army, but after 1999, al-Qaeda formed in Iraq and became a major terrorist group. The United States and United Kingdom invaded Iraq in 2003 to destroy the terrorists in the country and to find "weapons of mass destruction" that Saddam was alleged to have. The ensuing invasion of Iraq in April 2003 resulted in the deposition of the Ba'athists by the coalition and the Peshmerga Kurdish militia. In the end, the Ba'athists were toppled and Saddam was imprisoned - a new democratic Iraq took power.

Government
The government was ruled by the Ba'ath Party, which held a 55% Conservative majority in the upper house. 35% were liberal and 10% reactionary, and it had poor civil rights - there were no workers' rights and child labor was legal. It was ruled by a dictatorship, adding to the stress of the people.

Culture
Iraq's capital was Baghdad and its main cultures were Mashriqi (60.6%) and Bedouin (16.8%), with some Kurdish culture (13%), Turkish (8.6%), and Sephardim (1%). In 1992 it had around 35,000,000 people, with 71.7% of them being farmers, 13.4% laborers, 9.8% small business owners, 2.1% soldiers, 1.6% property magnates, and 1.1% academics. 63.3% of the people adhered to Sunni Islam, 29.8% to Shia Islam, 4.9% to Catholicism, 1% to Orthodox Christianity, and 1% to Judaism.